The yearly fighting game tournament EVO is starting later today, and fighting game news has entered the ring early.
A couple days ago, the unthinka- no, wait, it’s actually very thinkable. Street Fighter V, Capcom’s leading fighting game franchise, has leaked once again, this time by way of Steam. This isn’t something that should be encouraged (even if it was a third-party mistake), but Capcom took the unique approach of immediately acknowledging the leak and announcing it themselves. E. Honda, Lucia, and Poison are headed to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition August 4th, this Sunday evening. This news was supposed to coincide with SFV’s Sunday finals, but that’s gone kaput.
Their Summer 2019 character bundle will be available the following day for $14.99 USD, and will include all three new fighters plus their Battle Costumes and colors 3–10 to select from. The new stage, “Honda Sento,” will also be released alongside the characters on August 4th for the standard price of $3.99 USD or 70,000 FM, though it will not be included in the aforementioned character bundle. A new Devil May Cry crossover with a costume and music will begin on August 30th and run through September 27th.
Of much more significant note is Street Fighter V’s free trial, which started yesterday and will run until August 11th. The base 16-man roster and all of the Season 3 characters will be available for free on PlayStation 4 and Steam. In addition, the game and all its DLC are on steep discounts, ranging from 30-70% off. It’s the perfect time to try the game for yourself.
But that’s not all! NetherRealm has released the trailer and release date for their upcoming Mortal Kombat 11 DLC character Nightwolf. Hailing from klassic MK and making a brief return in MK9, this well-rounded Native American fighter can summon his spirit animals and weapons to assist him in battle. He’ll be hitting the game’s early access program on August 13th, with an official Kombat Pack trailer arriving on the 21st. You can check out Nightwolf’s trailer below, but be warned: it is extremely NSFW.
Now, onto the sales and free games! Not counting SFV, which was covered above. First off is Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Xbox One, which is free from now until August 5th for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Ultimate Games Pass subscribers. There’s also a massive glut of free trials available on Steam this weekend. Street Fighter V (again), Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Under Night In Birth Exe:Late[st], Dragon Ball FighterZ, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-, Guilty Gear (the original), Arcana Heart 3 LOVEMAX SIXSTARS!!!!!!, and the base Koihime Enbu. The freeware fighter Ultra Fight Da! Kyanta 2 is also hanging around its temporarily free peers. All of these games, as well as just about every big-name fighting game on Steam, PS4, and Xbox One are on sale as well. Price cuts range from 10% for newcomers to 85% for older titles. If there’s any fighting game you’ve ever considered buying, you’re gonna’ want to look it up right now!
Many of these deals run alongside EVO 2019 this weekend, with dozens of tournies running from August 2nd to August 4th (and, as is tradition, the wee hours of August 5th). Tekken 7’s Ultimate bundle is finally below the price of a regular full game on Steam, so I’m grabbing that. The EVO, AnimEVO, and side tournament schedules are all available, so look them up, find your favourite games wherever they’re sold, and buckle down for some digital-knuckle brawling!
